The next women’s movement is now

THE NEXT

WOMEN’S MOVEMENT IS NOW

By Allie Clouse

USA TODAY Network

The relationship between women of color and women’s rights movements has always been “complicated,” said Patrick Grzanka, associate professor of psychology at the University of Tennessee.

As America celebrates the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, it’s more important than ever to understand the role women of color played in the fight for suffrage, their exclusion within the movement and how the women’s rights battles of today and tomorrow can be more inclusive.

“A lot of the advancements that were

Congresswomen are recognized by President Donald Trump as he delivers the State of the Union address in 2019. The white they wear is meant to honor the women’s suffrage movement that led to the

ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. JASPER COLT / USA TODAY

made were made at the cost of solidarity across races,” said Jana Morgan, a political science professor at the University of Tennessee. “I think a recognition that dividing ourselves up does not help to overcome systems of entrenched power is crucial right now.”

In the mid-1800s, women and African American abolitionists were at the forefront of the early fight for suffrage. Together, at the Seneca Falls Convention, widely considered to be the first women’s rights meeting, they created the Declaration of Sentiments, a list of agreed-upon goals to gain equal rights for everyone.

But by the 1860s, the suffrage movement divided itself into those who supported efforts to ratify the 15th Amendment, which granted Black men the right to vote but did not include women, and the suffragists — like leaders Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton — who chose to focus solely on the enfranchisement of women.

And the passage of the 19th Amendment didn’t result in voting rights for all women. Women of color would face barriers to voting for decades to come.

“The movement shifted towards what today we might call ‘single-axis politics,’ a model that really privileged the prototypical subject of voting rights, and that was the white woman,” Grzanka said. “So, when women’s issues came to the forefront, a lot of other people and issues — specifically racism and white supremacy — got pushed to the sidelines as a result.”

This wasn’t the first or last time people of color and their rights would be abandoned to secure freedoms for other groups, particularly by white people.

‘They have solutions’

Despite the historical record of women’s movements silencing the voices of people of color, experts agree that now is the time to learn from past mistakes and embrace a more diverse, inclusive movement.

Lee Ann Banaszak, head of Penn State’s Department of Political Science and professor of political science and women’s, gender and sexuality studies, said America is in the midst of a new women’s movement.

“There’s larger hope today than there ever was 100 years ago that there will be a wide agenda looking at issues important to all women,” Banaszak said. “I do think that there has been a lot of learning among feminists and within the women’s movement that unity and diversity are really important. That was something the suffrage movement just didn’t get.”

And women of color are advancing the fight for rights by building their own organizations.

Black Lives Matter, a network seeking justice for violence inflicted on Black communities, was founded by three Black women — Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi — in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin in 2012.

Fair Fight, an organization that seeks to end voter suppression, was started by Stacey Abrams to advocate for election reform.

And Me Too, meant to help young women of color who have survived sexual violence, became a worldwide movement after activist Tarana Burke bravely told her story using #metoo.

“I think that we need to defer to the experiences and expertise of women of color right now around political organizing and the lived experience of disenfranchisement and the solutions,” Grzanka said. “They are the ones who are articulating the struggles of people across the country, and they have solutions.”

Doing the work

All these founders have succeeded in building a grassroots movement on social media and beyond, propelling Black Lives Matter and Me Too beyond a hashtag into foundations getting work done.

Building that social media movement and changing hearts and minds is no easy feat. Algorithms are built to show users information they agree with.

“We can reach lots of people very quickly without much effort online, but what does happen is the world is much more divided as a result of that social media,” Banaszak said.

It takes intentional and persistent work for movements to be ready to seize openings when the time is right.

“Successful mobilization requires both the behind-the-scenes, slow growth of building organizations and being prepared to jump at opportunities when they present themselves,” Morgan said.

New generation of leaders

Women of color have been left out of conversations about their own rights for centuries, but the recent rise in women of color holding office — women of color in Congress, both House and Senate, reached an all-time high of 47 in 2018 — is spreading hope that they will finally have their voices heard.

“What the suffrage movement is now remembered for in women’s history is who it excluded,” Grzanka said. “I hope that the next generation of voting rights activism will be remembered for who it included.”

Some of the most notable elects included Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Abby Finkenauer, who were both 29 when they won their seats, making them the youngest women elected to Congress; Deb Haaland and Sharice Davids, who are the first Native American women elected to Congress; and Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, who are the first Muslim women elected to Congress.

“Right now, we’re seeing some of the most vocal advocates both within government and outside of government being women of color, who are demanding that issues are brought to bear,” Grzanka said.

A 2019 report that examined the influence of women of color who voted in the 2018 midterm elections and was published by the Asian American and Pacific Islander Civic Engagement Fund and Groundswell Fund agrees.

Turnout among women of color at the polls increased 37% (48% among Asian American and Pacific Islander women, 28% among Black women and 51% among Latinas) compared to 2016.

“We have to continue to reform and challenge the inequalities that are baked into our political system in order to accomplish what we hope democracy can bring,” Morgan said. “At its best, democracy makes a better society for everybody.”

Black Lives Matter supporters hold their signs up while speakers talk at a Black Lives Matter rally at the International Friendship Bell in Oak Ridge,

Tennessee, June 2, 2020. CAITLYN JORDAN / KNOXVILLE NEWS SENTINEL

Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is pictured speaking to supporters at her election night headquarters in Atlanta in

2018. TAMI CHAPPELL, EPA-EFE